A new documentary about the life and times of black Alberta cowboy John Ware made it's debut at the Calgary International Film Festival last weekend.

Calgary Director Cheryl Foggo, who's black, says growing up in Calgary and going to the Stampede, she'd heard of Ware, but had no idea he too was black.

"It meant a lot to me when I did find out that there was a great black cowboy in this part of the world, because I did not see us represented in that world of the cowboy movies and books and all those things."

Foggo, says many know Ware as a famous black cowboy who was one of the first ranchers in the Foothills.

But she says he wasn't alone.

"He was not the only black cowboy in Southern Alberta. He was certainly not the only black person. There were black folks here before he came and in the time period afterward. So that's one way that we think about John Ware that is mistaken."

Foggo's own family came to Alberta as part of a large migration of black people fleeing oppression in the Southern United States starting in 1910, with many settling in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Foggo says a common belief among many is because Canada didn't have slavery, there was no racism in Canada towards black people.

She says the belief Ware didn't face racism upon his arrival to Canada is wrong.

"He is held up as a figure to kind of represent a belief that racism is not a part of Canada's history and that simply isn't true."

She says Ware, who came to the Foothills, as a former slave in 1882 as part of a cattle drive from the U.S., still felt the sting of racism in Canada, but Foggo says Ware was very good at seeking out people who didn't hold racist views and becoming friends with them.

"There were always people who knew better than to behave in a racist way. John Ware knew how to find those people. And integrate those people into his life and work around the racism he experienced."

"John Ware: Reclaimed" is sold out at the festival, but can be streamed from the Calgary International Film Festival website.

Horse Actor Fred Whitfield rides into the Bar-U Ranch during shooting of the documentary "John Ware: Reclaimed." Photo courtesy the National Film Board of Canada (Shaun Robinson).